My SRC assignment this month was Oh Boy! Karen Cooks! by Karen, of course.  That would be silly if it were by Sandy or Roberta.  So yes, Karen is the cook.  And DOES she cook!  It seems there is no limit to what this talented lady can make – and make successfully.  I mean, hells bells, I can cook just about anything, too.  Doesn’t mean it always turns out exactly as I had hoped.  Especially in the baking department, more specifically if it involves yeast.   But Karen has ALL that mastered.  Everything on her blog said, “Try Me! Try Me”.  But when I saw THESE, I knew it was the one for me.

Karen found this recipe by Mark Bittman.  They looked so good I just couldn’t pass them by.  There is always something that I want to make that I’ve never made before.

And, well, I’m a cracker virgin.

I love crackers!  There is something about the light, crunchy texture and the saltiness that is just my style.  Whether with a great cheese or soup, salad or spread, or whether they are a plain saltine or a big multigrain seeded disk, I love crackers!

Did I mention that I love crackers?

These crackers are crunchy, tender, flaky, and just melt in your mouth.  And soooo versatile you can make them anything you want with just a little imagination.

Karen, my hat is off to you!  These will be a “go to” recipe for special occasions and every day munching!  I can’t wait to make more and figure out what other flavors I can make.

Yesterday was Mother’s Day and my family really did things up BIG!  I’m so excited about this gift that I have to show you what it is.

My very own cookbook of my very own recipes and photographs.  My Mountain Man contributed some of the photos that he has taken, too!  You could have knocked me over with a feather.  Lots of my favorite recipes and photographs in a presentation of love from my daughter Jeni, her husband Kody and baby Kaison.  Also from my daughter Gabi, her husband Jeremy, and their kids Justin and Abbie.  God has blessed me so richly!  I’m one lucky Mom, Mai, and wife.
If you would like to check out more of the Secret Recipe Club recipes for this month, just click on the little linky guy and he’ll be happy to take you there!

Where have I been?  Seems that every where I look, everyone knows about homemade fabric softener.

Except me.

But now, I do.

And I want to pass this on to those of you who have been living under the same rock that I’ve been under all these years.

Where this “recipe” really started, who knows.  I found lots of people had posted the same recipe on Pinterest with no one giving credit to anyone in particular.   This recipe actually came from One Good Thing by Jillee.  So, at this point, Jillee is getting credit for saving me money and showing me how easy it is to find the “flavor” that I want to smell in a fabric softener.

This is a really difficult recipe, so for those of you who have bunions and corns, have a seat.  The rest of you make sure you have carb-loaded before you begin.

Ready?

You can also make your own dryer sheet by spraying a little softener on a rag and throwing it in with a load of laundry into the dryer.

I figure I spent about $2.50 for a GALLON of fabric softener as opposed to $6-$9 for the same amount at the grocery store.

If you don’t have a large bottle to store this much softener, reduce the water by half (to 3 cups) and use half as much as you normally use for a washer load.

I just finished a load and it needs a little more “flavor”.  I would like to smell the softener, although I will tell you the clothes are nice and bright and soft and smell very fresh!  I’ll work on the fragrance part.

I hope you all didn’t work up too much of a sweat while making this.

I think I need a nap now.

“There is only one quality worse than hardness of heart and that is softness of head.”

~Theodore Roosevelt

The blog I received for my Secret Recipe Club assignment for this month is one of my very favorites!  The Haggis and The Herring a.k.a. Daniel and Meredith, have recipes with some of the best ingredients, flavorful spices, and just deliciously simple to make.  Not only that, but Daniel is one of the nicest guys you will ever meet, which makes me sure that Meredith is one of the nicest ladies you will ever meet, too.

Not that I’ve met Daniel personally, but virtually, he is a GREAT guy.  Very helpful and courteous and full of, well, . . . . knowledge!

I know, me bein’ from Texas and all, you expected me to say something else.

Daniel and Meredith’s blog started as a blog for their wedding.  Then, after some encouragement from Meredith, Daniel took some culinary art classes and became more involved in Mediterranean and regional Spanish cuisine.  His love of cooking started with his uncle, catching and preparing Mako Shark when he was young and his love for cooking never waned.  Meredith is a personal travel agent, knitter and baker.  So, you know when you see something yummy and baked on The Haggis and The Herring, it is most likely a recipe from Meredith.

I love looking through the recipes in Daniel and Meredith’s blog.  Many are very international, and most are very simple flavors that are perfect together.  The recipe that I chose is one of the many that fit all of those adjectives.

I have roasted potatoes many times, and it is one of our favorite dishes, but I had never thought of using a mustard sauce on them.  The result is heavenly and not “mustardy” at all.  These definitely went to the top of the favorite dishes list!

Tip:  By the way, if you love and use fresh garlic as much as I do and buy the big already peeled bucket of them at Sam’s or Costco, garlic will freeze very well.  So I just toss the garlic in a plastic zip bag and put it in the freezer.  When I need the garlic I take out as many cloves as I need, let them sit for about 5 minutes on the counter, then chop them up and use them in my dish.  I do the same thing with roasted garlic.  Squeeze out the roasted, stick goodness and put in a plastic container and freeze.  When you need some roasted garlic, take out of the freezer and let sit for 10 or 15 minutes, then scoop out what you need.  Yep, it’s that easy!

This was a fabulous dish for our week-long “camping” trip to San Antonio to the National Shooting Complex.  Very easy to make while on the road and the perfect side to accompany our grilled Lamb Chops and Fresh Sauteed Spinach.

More about this trip coming up shortly!

Please check out other wonderful recipes from Dan and Meredith.  I know you will be adding several to the top of your favorite recipe list, too!  Thanks to both of you for making our meal great.  I really enjoy your blog and know I will be spending more time hanging out there.

As for the rest of you, check out the other recipes from this month’s Group B SRC reveal here!

I know you are asking, “What in the heck is Suzanne thinking? Does she even know what she wrote for the title of this post?” I’m just a country girl from the, well, country. I’m Texan through and through. But somehow this salad needed a little more refined title than just “A Country Gal’s Tortellini Salad” simply because it is out of this world good!

So, I added a very refined, “da”.

The recipe comes from Amy’s Cooking Adventures and is one of the best food blogs of all times! Amy admits that she grew up in her mother’s kitchen watching her cook but she didn’t really learn a whole lot. What she did learn was via osmosis. However, the important lesson she took away from her time in the kitchen watching her mom was that families need a time to sit down together and talk about their day, their problems, and their successes.

There is something so comforting in sitting around a table of lovingly prepared homemade food and sharing it with those you care about most, something we both have in common for sure.

OK, enough or I’m going to start “tearin’ up”. *sniff*

I had such a huge number of Amy’s recipes that I wanted to make, but when I saw her Balsamic Tortellini Salad I stopped dead in my tracks. I hurried to the kitchen and put on a pot of boiling water right then and there.

Time’s a’ wastin’!

Of course there are a few variations of ingredients from Amy’s original recipe that you can find here. But overall I maintained the spirit of the recipe and the flavors. I KNOW you are going to love this one! And talk about perfect for the next family gathering . . . this is it!

If you want to check out all the other recipes for the Secret Recipe Club‘s Group C posts, the are all right here!  Thank you to Angela, Group C’s Hostess with the Mostess for allowing me to post this with her group!

I am SUCH a ditz sometimes.

Some would say more than just “sometimes”.

But you know, it usually works out well in the end.  I’ve learned not to stress too much.  Just fix it and move on.

So, I’m fixing it and I’m moving on.  But not before telling you about this great recipe and my friend, Heather over at Hezzi-D’s Books and Cooks.

I already know that Heather is kind and forgiving (read – I screwed up).  But she also has a LOT of fabulous recipes, loves to cook, bake and read.  She also has this great nickname that her husband and a friend of his, Mojo, came up with for her “rock ‘n roll” name several years ago – and it stuck, thus the name “Hezzi-D”.  I love to cook, read, and have a great nickname that one of my husband’s friends gave me about 28 years ago, “Vivisue” – a combination of my first and middle names.  But what we don’t have in common is a “love” for baking.  It’s not that I don’t like to bake, I just don’t think I’m very good at it.  I’ve really been in the mood for a bundt cake, and when I saw Heather’s recipe for Babovka, I knew I had found exactly what would calm the Craving Beast inside me!

By the way, I told my Mountain Man that he couldn’t slice into the cake because I hadn’t taken pictures yet . . . . and I thought he was going to, well, you know . . . cry.

Shhhhhhhh, don’t tell him I told you that.

This cake is BETTER than advertised!  The main difference you will see and taste between this Babovka and a regular pound cake is the light, fluffiness of the Babovka.  Extremely moist, just like you expect and has wonderful flavor.  We loved the nuts and choco chips on top, but they are certainly not necessary.

This would make a great dessert for a party, family gathering or picnic!  However, it is the Breakfast of Champions for me and Mountain Man this morning!

Dokud nebudeme jíst znovu!!

If you would like to see other fabulous dishes from this week’s Secret Recipe Club, check them out here.

This is really going to be a surprise for Heather, the lady whose blog I received for my Secret Recipe Club assignment this month.

You see, last month Heather from over at Healthy With Heather was orphaned for SRC reveal day and so I volunteered to make a dish from her blog and made Southwestern Chicken Tortilla Stew.  Having NO idea at the time that she would be my assignment for March.  Then, when I saw her blog was mine for March, I was thrilled.  Heather is a health-conscious, pregnant, 20-something who has a love of all things “fitness”.

Our similarities stop there.  Actually, they stopped back at the previous sentence.

I have gotten much better over the years of watching what I eat.  Which means that my Mountain Man watches more of what he eats, too.  I also work out in the pool three times a week.  And yes, I really, really work it!  Didn’t know anyone could sweat while in water.  Just sayin’. . .

Another thing that we really try and do daily is eat a good breakfast.  Although many times lately I find myself running out of ideas.  That’s why I loved this recipe.  I always have a ripe banana or two, or three laying around and I refuse to eat them “as is” when they have brown spots on the skin.  Bleck!  A Plain-Jane-Eatin’ Banana must have yellow AND green on the outside for me to entertain the thought of eating it.  As for the brown ones, well, I love them smushed up in anything baked!

Heather called these “protein” muffins.  I call then “power” muffins.  Mainly because I didn’t use protein powder, but also because breakfast is when we all need to “power up” for the day and because there is LOTS of powerful protein in Greek yogurt.  Really doesn’t matter what you call them, because the key word is GREAT!

Well, Heather, I hope that I can make you proud once again.  It’s is always a pleasure to peruse your blog!

Love that these aren’t real sweet!  And so does my Mountain Man.  YUM!

Power up, Buttercup!

“Til we eat again . . .

Want to see all the other delicious goodies for today’s SRC Reveal?  Just check them out here!

Welcome to the new look of my blog!  I’m still working on a few things, but, for the most part, everything is a lot the same.  Just the look (mostly) has changed.  This is a bit more reflective of the real me, whoever that is.  I hope you like it!

In the meanwhile, I have to tell you about this great blog I found!

Heather is young, she is energetic, she lives a healthy lifestyle, she is self-described “fitness and food enthusiast”, she is a fitness instructor and she is preggers with her first baby boy.  ALL of which I am not!  Although I’m trying more every day.  NOT the preggers part, but the healthy stuff so I can have more energy and keep myself young.  I’m already a food enthusiast, so there is one thing I won’t have to do.  At that, I’m really a perfectionist!  She and I do have a couple of other things in common besides the Secret Recipe Club and our love of food.  She has a black and white kitty – I have a black and white puppy.

Cool Hand "Luke"

She shops at Costco – I shop at Costco.  She is going to have a baby boy – we just adopted a baby boy!

Heather is a very interesting lady who blogs over at Get Healthy With Heather.  If her enthusiasm were contagious the whole world would be a better place for sure.  I really enjoyed perusing her blog and reading about her pregnancy and her outlook on life.  She is truly blessed!

I, too, am truly blessed to have received her blog as my Secret Recipe Club assignment for this month.  SRC is kinda like having a visit from Secret Santa once every month.  Christmas all year long!

It didn’t take me long to figure out the recipe I wanted to make.  You see, it has been snowing HUGE flakes for about an hour and the weather has finally felt like a little bit of winter for the first time all . . . well, winter.  And winter just screams for soups and stews, in my most humble opinion – something I always carry with me.  So when I saw Heather’s recipe for Crockpot Tortilla Soup with Cheesy  Triangles, I knew I had hit the jackpot.  Especially when I saw that it involved GREEN CHILE.  Those of you who have been following me for a while know my passion for that gorgeous pepper.

I’m starting to drool just thinking about this stew.

Cheese Crisps

This recipe – including the cheese crisps – has only 230 calories per serving, 9 grams of fat, 200 mg of sodium (if you don’t add extra salt), 21 carbs with 5 grams of fiber, 18 grams of protein (that’s without yogurt added), and is very high in Vitamins A (almost as much as you need in a day!) and C (MORE than what you need in a day!). And a whopping 485mg of potassium, of which it seems I never get enough.   All of these are approximate, of course, but you get the idea. This soup packs a bunch of flavor and nutrition! Plus, it is wonderful comfort food on a cold winter evening. Comfort food doesn’t have to be heavy to be rich and satisfying.